Are Fiverr Sellers Allowed To Use My Ideas To Create New Gigs For Themsleves?

[Guest userlinkbiz]

Hello I recently came up with a killer concept to help launch a new marketing campaign on my website. I then found a seller who could create what I needed. After the gig was done, I haven’t heard from him until today when I looked at his gigs to see if he could help me with something else. This seller is now offering to create a similar concept for others in a new gig, and I feel like he has stole my work.



My question is are sellers allowed to take an idea that I’ve created and offer to do the same for others? This seller has already got several orders for this new gig and people are commending him for this cool concept when he basically stole it from me.



I’m not sure if I should report him to Fiverr or does he have the right to create similar gigs using a concept that he got from me. Does anyone know anything about this?

[fonthaunt]

Hello,



As far as I know a seller can create gigs from any ideas they wish unless it breaks Fiverr rules or law in a specific way. For example, if a seller copies an exact gig image, an exact gig description, web content, trademarked images from elsewhere - all of that would violate Fiverr terms and legal boundaries. When it comes to a general concept, though, unless you have a specific right due to some sort of legal filing or previously established copyright, I doubt you’d be able to do anything about it. I’ve seen Fiverr take down gigs that employ any form of outright theft, services that violate 3rd party terms (like thousands of “bot” Twitter followers) and impersonation of celebrities. What you describe doesn’t sound like any of that to me.



Another example I could offer is the “buyer request” section of Fiverr. Buyers can post a brief sentence saying what service they need. Fiverr actually uses the reference “Gig Suggestions” for that area which to me indicates that they encourage sellers to get ideas for gig creations by viewing what sort of things buyers need done. That said - I’m not an authority on the subject. There isn’t anything stopping you from contacting Customer Service and reporting your concerns. Then you can defer to their judgement on the issue.



Maddie “FontHaunt”

[Guest digilancer99]

I would imagine that there’s nothing Fiverr would do about this, as there are tons of gigs that are similar to one another. However, like fonthaunt said, it’s up to you to contact Fiverr support and report the issue. MAYBE your conversation with this seller will help with your case. I wouldn’t get my hopes up, though. It’s a crappy move, but I don’t think it breaks any TOS.

[fastcopywriter]

“does he have the right to create similar gigs using a concept that he got from me.”



—Yes he does, and if he hired you and paid you, then your idea belongs to him now.



Besides, if I offer 5 headlines for $5 and you offer 15 headlines for $5, are you stealing or competing? Just because two people do the same thing doesn’t mean they do it the same way.



Sometimes two gigs might have the same gig pictures, even if the users are using stock photos, more than one person might use that same photo, which is why I hire artists to create most of my gig images.



My advice to you would be not to worry about the competition. Instead worry about being competitive and offer a good deal for the money, with a short delivery date if you’re responsible enough to meet your deadlines.

[Guest userlinkbiz]

After reading the TOS of Fiverr under ownership it clearly states " Ownership



Ownership and limitations: Unless clearly stated otherwise on the sellers Gig page/description, when the work is delivered, and subject to payment, the buyer is granted all intellectual property rights, including but not limited to, copyrights for the work delivered from the seller, and the seller waives any and all moral rights therein. The delivered work shall be considered work-for-hire under the U.S. Copyright Act. In the event the delivered work does not meet the requirements of work-for-hire or when US Copyright Act does not apply, the seller expressly agrees to assign to buyer the copyright in the delivered work. All transfer and assignment of intellectual property to buyer shall be subject to full payment for the Gig and the delivery may not be used if payment is cancelled for any reason. For removal of doubt, in custom created work (such as art work, design work, report generation etc.), the delivered work shall be the exclusive property of buyer, and seller assigns all rights, title and interest in the delivered work. Note: some Gigs (including for custom created work) charge additional payments (through Gig Extras) for commercial use. This means that if you purchase the Gig for personal use, you will own all rights to the delivered work without purchasing the Extra. If you intend to use it for business purposes, you will need to buy the Extra.



Sellers further confirm that whatever information they receive from the buyer, which is not public domain, shall be kept confidential and shall not be shared or used for any purpose whatsoever other than for the delivery of the ordered work to the buyer.

So I see all I can do is report it to Fiverr and see what they say about it. It’s not fair to say this is competition when someone takes your ideas and uses them for themselves. That’s outright theft not competing.

[Guest userlinkbiz]

Fastcopwriter, you have no idea what competition means from a business stand point. According to you Pepsi would be able to steal Cokes logo and sell it to anyone or use it in any way they please. As stated above. This is my intellectual property. This is Theft not competition. I’ve contacted this seller described exactly what I wanted in detail and now he is selling the exact same thing to others. Is this truly competition? I think not.

[dtongsports]

Who knows? Maybe one day you’ll have a subcategory here on Fiverr that is what you do, but everyone and their brother decided to do the same… such as me, 4 years ago with the Advertising/Radio subcat. Now, I’m at nearly 2100 ratings while the next closest is 950. Much love from Fiverr, however, copycats are everywhere when it comes to getting money…

[kreativa]

@userlinkbiz , interesting subject. You can try the customer support on this one, but than again it is a touchy subject. Unless you protect an ‘idea’ with law, it can be applied and used in practice and if it is done before you protect it - you actually lose the right to claim it afterwards.



I believe the information Fiverr is talking about is private information such as website, graphics, passwords etc. But if your end result is marketing campaign concept as a way of doing it, you can’t protect it since this would be a mix of services you don’t provide as a party.

[fonthaunt]

@userlinkbiz I think you are pretty far off the mark at this point. You said -

userlinkbiz said: Fastcopwriter, you have no idea what competition means from a business stand point. According to you Pepsi would be able to steal Cokes logo and sell it to anyone or use it in any way they please. As stated above. This is my intellectual property. This is Theft not competition.

I think fastcopywriter may have misunderstood that you were the buyer, not the seller (unless I'm the one misunderstanding) but that part is really moot. I wouldn't say that what you described or what fastcopywriter said was like Pepsi stealing Coke's logo. You said this was a concept you had come up with - not a specific piece of intellectual property that you had legal right to own. Coke owns the name and the logo so of course it would be theft if Pepsi tried to use it.

What you are describing, though, is more like this: Coke sells a soda that has a certain color, flavor and name. Pepsi comes along and attempts to replicate that color and flavor with guesswork/labwork/whatever. Their product is very close to the one that Coke sells, but since they don't have legal right or access to the Coke formula, it is based on the product that Coke is selling but isn't so exact that you could prove any sort of theft. Of course, down the line, a bunch of companies come up with cola style products but Coke doesn't own every sweet carbonated drink with a brown color so they can't do anything about it but try to market theirs better.

If the Fiverr seller you worked with stole your name, your exact picture, or your logo then you could get Fiverr to shut down down and/or sue them. If you can't prove they stole something you had legal right to you can still contact Fiverr and a lawyer but it's still doubtful that it would do you any good.

[Guest userlinkbiz]

Thanks everyone for your responses. I will update when I get a reply back from Fiverr. I hope there is no misunderstanding as to what I feel was stolen. This seller created a series of Graphics and Banner ads that reflect a marketing concept that I created. He now has a new gig which he is creating the same marketing graphics for others. So this is just to clarify.

[d3services]

Reply to @userlinkbiz: Yes he does and that’s why he’s more successful and a top rated seller unlike you. Do you have a patent for your what so called “Idea”? The answer is obvious, it’s a NO. Then stop complaining and get over it.



And please, stop comparing big names, Pepsi obviously can’t use trademarked images from Coca-Cola because it’s TRADEMARKED, that means Pepsi paid money for their brand. If you have something to trademark, please don’t hesitate to do it. Only then you can complain but right now, it does not belong to you as long as it’s not trademarked.

[d3services]

Reply to @userlinkbiz: You won’t get anything from Fiverr, it’s NOT trademarked, stop crying seriously.

[scottmcfadden]

Even IP law states that one cannot copyright an “idea” Trademarks require very detailed descriptions that involve colours used, processes and even layout however minor changes to those basic things like a pink instead of red and slightly similar but different font and the law has not been breached, A fine example of this is achey breaky heart just two letters changed in the whole song(aching breaking ) and somehow billyray didn’t even have to pay royalties … but lets face it we are not talking about millions here.

You paid a really small amount for a work that by your own words has become popular

then rather then be grateful for the effort placed into the job, you complain he offsets the work placed into your order by offering it up as a gig to others.



Did you specifically state this idea was private I wonder ?

Are you aware of trade secrets agreements ? did the vendor sign one ?

If he did not sign a trade secret agreement there is no case , however at least now you have a minor clue how to fully exploit someone in the future.

And yes fact is you clearly were happy with your product , you just wanted to have it as your little secret… not a problem for me ill sign a trade secrets agreement but that will cost you extra.

[Guest userlinkbiz]

As of today I have sent a message to Fiverr. I will save further updates after receiving a response from them. This is a real issue and I created this post to see if others had similar experience. I’m not crying as stated by dservices (You Lame). If you can’t provide any value to the post then why respond.

[ialzuro]

1st you’ll have to be able to show/prove it’s your intellectual property. You’ll need the thread with that person, documentation of this idea existing and even applied with another client. That much will get Fivver’s attention.

[cdgervais]

As of today I have sent a message to Fiverr. I will save further updates after receiving a response from them. This is a real issue and I created this post to see if others had similar experience. I’m not crying as stated by dservices (You Lame). If you can’t provide any value to the post then why respond.

Hi! I’m curious to see if you ever got this resolved. Let us know!

[Anna]

Hi! I’m curious to see if you ever got this resolved. Let us know!

He made this post back in 2015 and it appears the user is no longer on fiverr.

[cdgervais]

He made this post back in 2015 and it appears the user is no longer on fiverr.

Ah I see!

Thanks for the reply. I’m a fairly new seller but I only singed up for forums today. I’ve just noticed the icons on the top right showing dates.😅

Thank you!

[Anna]

Ah I see!

Thanks for the reply. I’m a fairly new seller but I only singed up for forums today. I’ve just noticed the icons on the top right showing dates.😅

Thank you!

No worries and welcome 😉